At the first Seminar on the History of the Book for 2013, Juan Carlos Conde examined ‘A neglected Old Spanish Bible translation’, in the form of Bodleian MS. Canon. ital. 177, despite its shelfmark one of the Spanish manuscripts in the great collection of Matteo Luigi Canonici (as described in the appropriate section of the Quarto catalogue by Alessandro Mortara), which was bought by the Bodleian Library in the 19th century.

The contents of the manuscript, which was made in 1406, are a translation into Spanish, probably from the Hebrew, of the books of the early prophets, with the addition of the Book of Ruth. The presentation wove together discussion of the contents, codicology and history of the manuscript’s ownership and its subsequent cataloguing, to present a compelling case for a closer look at this item whose history has kept it mostly ‘under the radar’ .